AIHW bulletin

Musculoskeletal conditions are responsible for a substantial proportion of the non-fatal burden of disease in Australia. This bulletin describes the contribution of musculoskeletal conditions to mortality. Although musculoskeletal conditions were not among the leading underlying causes of death, this bulletin shows that these conditions were likely to have contributed to about 1 in 20 deaths in Australia in 2013.

This bulletin compares medications taken by prisoners with people in the general community. The poor health and complex health needs of prisoners are reflected in the number and types of medications they take. Prisoners were more likely than those in the general community to be taking medication for health problems including mental health issues, addictions and chronic conditions. Contextual information from a focus group of prison health professionals is used to discuss some of the differences between prescribing in a prison and in the general community.

This bulletin presents an overview of results from a 2015 national pilot data collection on the views of children in out-of-home care. Key findings include 91% of children reporting feeling both safe and settled in their current placement; 97% reporting that they had an adult who cares about what happens to them now and in the future; and 67% reporting that they usually get to have a say in what happens to them, and that people usually listen to what they say.

This bulletin presents information on the youth detention population in Australia, focusing on quarterly trends from June 2011 to June 2015. There were fewer than 900 young people in detention on an average night in the June quarter 2015, just over half (55%) of whom were unsentenced. Numbers and rates of young people in detention dropped slightly over the 4 years, but trends varied among the states and territories. Just over half (54%) of all young people in detention on an average night were Indigenous.

In 2013–14, an estimated 321,531 people used disability support services under the National Disability Agreement (NDA), including 4,200 who transitioned to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) during the year. Over half (55%) of all NDA service users had an intellectual or learning disability and many needed at least some assistance in one or more of the three broad life areas—activities of daily living (68%), activities of independent living (82%), and activities of work, education and community living (86%).

There were 6,100 young people under youth justice supervision in Australia on an average day in 2013–14, due to their involvement, or alleged involvement, in crime. This number has fallen from about 6,400 in 2012–13. Most (85%) of these young people were supervised in the community and the remainder were in detention. Young people spent 26 weeks, on average, under supervision during the year.

Between 1998 and 2012, life expectancy at birth has risen by 4 years for boys and nearly 3 years for girls. And because disability prevalence rates have been falling over this period, the gain in disability-free life expectancy has been even greater for boys (4.4 years, compared with 2.4 years for girls). Older Australians have also seen increases in the expected number of healthy years, but this has been accompanied by more years needing assistance with everyday activities. Over this period, the gender gap in life expectancy narrowed across all ages, and the gap in the expected years living free of disability also reduced across most ages.

Nationally, there were 24,002 clients who had been diverted into alcohol and other drug treatment, comprising 25% of all clients. Diversion clients were younger and more likely to be male than non-diversion clients, and less likely to be Indigenous. Diversion treatment episodes were about twice as likely to involve cannabis as the principal drug of concern compared with episodes for non-diversion clients. Police diversion episodes had less intensive treatment types compared with court diversion episodes.

Despite relatively high standards of health and health care in Australia, not all Australians fare equally well in terms of their health and longevity. Substantial mortality inequalities exist in the Australian population, in terms of overall mortality, and for most leading causes of death, and these inequalities are long-standing.

This bulletin provides an overview of health services in Australian prisons. It draws on data available from the 2012 National Prisoner Health Data Collection, supplemented by contextual information provided by state/territory departments responsible for prisoner health, to bring together a more comprehensive picture of services delivered to prisoners than has previously been available. The governance of health care in prisons in Australia is complex, with diverse services delivered, including some outside the prison.

In 2012–13, Australian governments spent $7.2 billion on disability support services under the National Disability Agreement. More than 312,500 people used services during this time. The most common services users were people with intellectual, physical and psychiatric disabilities.

This bulletin examines the association between the risk of child social exclusion and children’s health outcomes in Australia at the small-area level. The results show that Australian children living in areas with a relatively high risk of social exclusion also experience relatively poor health outcomes. As the risk of child social exclusion increases, so do the rates of both potentially preventable hospitalisations and avoidable deaths.

Around 6,300 young people were under youth justice supervision in Australia on an average day in 2012-13, due to their involvement, or alleged involvement, in crime. Of these, over 4 in 5 (5,300 young people) were supervised in the community and the remaining 1,000 were in detention. Young people spent, on average, 26 weeks under supervision during the year.

This bulletin presents results from the 2012 National Prisoner Health Data Collection, focusing on smoking and smoking cessation behaviours of prisoners in Australia. In 2012, 84% of prison entrants were current smokers, which is around 5 times the proportion of the general community. Quitting smoking in prison is difficult: 35% of prisoners who were about to be released tried to quit during their time in prison, but only 8% were successful.

In 2011–12, Australian governments spent $6.9 billion on disability support services under the National Disability Agreement—an increase of 10% from the previous year. More than 317,600 people used services during this time—an increase of 1% from the previous year. The most common services users were people with intellectual, physical and psychiatric disabilities.

Rheumatoid arthritis is the most severe form of arthritis, affecting around 2% of Australians. Even though management of the condition has improved markedly in recent years, largely because of the availability of new medicines, people with rheumatoid arthritis are more likely than those without the condition to report severe pain, poor health status and psychological distress. The size of indirect costs associated with rheumatoid arthritis, such as productivity losses and the cost for carers, are currently unknown.

Social housing is a significant component of housing assistance and includes all rental housing owned and managed by government or a not-for-profit community organisation which can be let to eligible households. The National Social Housing Survey (NSHS) is designed to gather information on social housing tenants and their housing experiences. This report presents a national summary of the results from the 2012 NSHS and reports findings from public housing, community housing and state owned and managed Indigenous housing tenants.

The overview presents figures on the number of young people that were under juvenile justice supervision in 2011-12. The overview provides a breakdown on the number of young people who were supervised in the community and those in detention it also provides Indigenous rates.

Many older Australians report a desire to age in place. This bulletin explores the relationship between this desire and the housing circumstances of older Australians of different tenure types; that is, those who own their home outright, those paying a mortgage and those who rent their home either privately or through social housing.

This snapshot brings together the latest information on juvenile arthritis, a relatively uncommon condition affecting less than 1% of Australian children. Limited national statistics make it difficult to evaluate the full extent of the effects of this condition on the children and those who care for them. However, available data show that Australian Government subsidies for new classes of treatment medications have continually increased since their introduction in 2002-03 and hospitalisation rates for girls with juvenile arthritis have increased in the 10 years to 2009-10. The reasons for this latter increase are not yet clear.

This bulletin reports on the number of people who experienced severe incontinence in 2009, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers. It also presents information on prevalence rates and how much was spent on incontinence (excluding residential aged care costs) in 2008-09. There were an estimated 316,500 people suffering from severe incontinence in 2009, most of whom were female (66%). As well, 73% of primary carers who assisted in managing another person's incontinence spent at least 40 hours each week caring or supervising.

This report examines the experiences of the 252,700 people aged 50 and over who stayed for at least one night in a New South Wales public hospital in 2006-07. Slightly more than 8% of patients (20,800 people) were identified as having dementia. Even allowing for age and sex differences, people with dementia had much higher hospitalisation rates than those without dementia: 26% compared with 12%. They also tended to stay longer in hospital and were more likely to enter or return to residential care on discharge from hospital, or to die in hospital.

This report shows that older Australians are living longer and, on average, getting more years of life without severe or profound limitation in basic daily activities. On the other hand, the ageing of the Australian population and increasing longevity are leading to a greater number of older people with disability and severe or profound activity limitation.

Although only about 5% of young Australians are Indigenous, almost 2 in 5 (39%) of those under juvenile justice supervision on an average day in 2010-11 were Indigenous. There were 2,820 Indigenous young people under supervision on an average day and 5,195 during the year. Indigenous young people first entered supervision at younger ages than non-Indigenous young people, on average, and spent longer under supervision during the year.

Short questions on food habits, such as 'How many serves of fruit do you usually eat each day?' are often used to assess dietary behaviours. This report presents analysis of the 2007 Australian National Children's Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey to assess how well responses to short questions compare with more comprehensive tools, such as keeping a diary of all food eaten over two 24-hour periods. Results show that short questions may be a reasonable proxy for type of milk usually consumed and a reasonable approximation of fruit and vegetable intake, but are of limited value for predicting sodium or iodine intakes.